UPMIRE INTERACTION
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minor-league umpires is only by the season, usually three to five months a year. As such and as a matter of necessity, they must work other jobs during the off season.
Once his career begins a minor league umpire faces an almost impossible task of realizing his dream. The vast majority of umpires working within the various professional baseball leagues below MLB never make it to the majors. The attrition rate at the MLB level is about one per year, making one opening for a Triple A umpire a year, to claim a permanent job at that level. According to MLB Director of Umpire Administration Tom Lepperd, it takes “usually seven to 10 years in the minor leagues” before an umpire gets to the Majors. That’s twice the amount of time it normally takes a ballplayer to make his way through the ranks”. When a student is fortunate enough to be recommended for a job, he begins his professional umpiring career at the bottom of baseball’s hierarchy in either rookie or short-season Class A baseball. Whereas a minor league player can skip a level or levels, an umpire cannot. Baseball fans know it is almost impossible to dismiss an umpire in the major leagues, but a minor league umpire who is evaluated as no longer being a major-league prospect will be released, ending his professional career.
Shaun Lampe, working in the AA Eastern League explains some of the challenges of being a minor league umpire. Lampe points out that minor league players and umpires go through similar challenges but with one major difference. Since they don’t have a home base, as players do, umpires are constantly on the road. Instead of having 25 or more teammates to spend the season with, they have only each other, a minor league crew comprised of three members. The crew becomes a summer family, staying in the same hotels, often the same one occupied by the visiting team, and travels in a league owned van. Seven to eight hour drives are not uncommon. According to Lampe, “This year from April 3rd and September 3rd we had 11 days off, two being the All-Star Break. So on average we work three to four weeks without a day off and then we’ll have one day off.”